


Every Tudor Rose has its thorns

by Evilicequeen19



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Anxiety, Aragon has a wild side, Aragon/Parr friendship, K Howard is an empath, antics, cathy has anxiety, six queens and a puppy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-19 17:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20660660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evilicequeen19/pseuds/Evilicequeen19
Summary: In which Cathy has anxiety attacks, and Aragon has a solution.A fluffy solution.





	Every Tudor Rose has its thorns

**Author's Note:**

> Hahaha I wrote most of this during an anxiety attack. So yeah, enjoy!

Catherine Parr was extremely grateful for her second chance at life in the current age with her new family. She loved the surplus of books this century had to offer, and she loved that the Queens had a public library in walking distance from their home. She loved comfy flannel shirts and leggings and mocha lattes and her squashy reading chair in the corner of her room by the window. Every day Cathy discovered something new to learn about, and she loved that more than anything.

What Cathy didn’t love, however, was her newfound anxiety.

Cathy supposed she’d always had anxiety, but in her past life there was more often than not a reason to be anxious. Now Cathy loved her life and her job and her newfound family, but she would often feel dread scratching at her chest, somedays louder than others.

And today was one of those days.

It was a random Tuesday, and Cathy had woken up feeling okay. She’d gone for a shortened version of her morning run, as she had arisen slightly later than she normally might have, and stopped for a coffee on her way back home. She took a quick shower as her coffee cooled, and as she settled in to an old favorite book in her chair by the window, suddenly she found herself unable to concentrate on her book. She took a quick gulp of her coffee- luckily she’d asked the barista to put a few pumps of peppermint syrup in her mocha this morning (she’d found peppermint was good for settling her stomach and by extension her nerves)- and stood up to find a book on her shelf she hadn’t read yet. She hoped it would hold her attention better and distract her from the fluttering of nervousness that was beginning to take hold of her. She finally decided on a fantasy book Anne had gotten her.

It was to no avail however. Cathy had gotten maybe twenty pages in when her mind wandered away from the book in her lap, and she snapped it shut in frustration and threw it lightly across the room. She buried her head in her hands. When her anxiety acted like this it was the hardest to deal with; she would feel fluttery and awful sitting and doing nothing, but nothing would hold her attention long enough for her to feel good doing it. On days like this she was liable to stay seated in her chair for hours before she mustered up the motivation to do something else.

So there she sat, sipping her coffee, at war with herself. She was halfway through her coffee when Kat and Anne burst through her door. Cathy quickly tried to look more composed than she felt.

“Jane says you should eat today!” Anne said loudly. “She’s made eggs and toast for everyone!”

Kat was looking at her curiously. “What are you doing? You’re not reading this morning?” She asked.

Cathy laughed a little too loudly to be normal. “Just caught up in my thoughts I guess.” Kat was looking at the book Cathy had thrown across the room- it had landed so the cover was bent inwards. Cathy quickly began to speak again to distract her. “Tell Jane thanks, and I’ll be down soon!” 

Cathy knew her voice was too chipper, too eager, but Anne didn’t seem to notice anything off. She smiled at her and pulled Kat out of the room toward the kitchen. Kat gave her a concerned glance before she allowed Anne to pull her away.

Cathy knew it would be weird if she didn’t go down to breakfast after that exchange, even if she didn’t want to, so she forced herself out of her chair and picked up the book she’d tossed across the room. She smoothed the cover over and took it with her to give herself something to do other than look at the other queens.

When she arrived in the kitchen Cleves was seated at the island with Jane, scrolling through her phone and munching on a piece of toast. Jane was buttering a piece of her own toast and chattering away about her plans for the day without seeming to care whether or not anyone was actually listening. Anne was shoveling eggs into her mouth at about a mile a minute, and Cathy briefly wondered what she was speeding through her breakfast to get back to doing. Kat was sitting next to Anne looking slightly uncomfortable, and she’d barely touched her food.

“Ah, g’morning Cathy. I made you a plate; it’s on the counter there.” Jane said to her cheerily. Cathy have her a nod and what hopefully looked like a normal appreciative grin, and grabbed her plate and a fork from the counter and sat on the opposite side of the table from Anne and Kat. 

She fiddled with her fork and took bites here and there to try kit to arouse suspicion, but her stomach was beginning to knot so badly that she wasn’t sure how much breakfast she really wanted. She held her book open and gave appearances of reading it, but her hands were too idle and she knew she was flipping through pages too fast to be reasonably reading. In the background Jane and Anne were having an argument about something but Cathy was too zoned into her own head to hear it.

Her head was buzzing. There was no way around it. Thoughts moved in and out of her consciousness in a way she couldn’t control, faster than she could register. The speed of her thoughts made her contemplate the speed of her thoughts, and before she could finish that thought she was thinking about how and why a heart could beat a mile a minute with no reason for a fight or flight response. When was the last time she’d gone to the store to shop for herself and the queens? Hadn’t it been her turn last week, had she gone? Hadn’t she wanted to go over-

“Kat? You okay?”

Cleves’s voice suddenly broke through Cathy’s internal monologue despite not having been addressed herself. The whole room was suddenly turned to Kat. She’d still barely touched her breakfast and was visibly fidgeting in her chair.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, I mean, sort of…” Kat trailed off, looking confused. 

“Sort of in what way, love?” Jane pressed kindly.

“I feel a weird vibe. Not really sure how to describe it. I feel an emotion that isn’t mine, but I think I’m making it mine. Does that make sense?” Kat’s brow was furrowed like she was struggling to understand what she had said herself.

“You feel feelings that aren’t yours?” Anne was practically gawking at her. “I don’t even like to handle my own feelings.”

Cathy, on the other hand, knew what Kat was talking about. Empath, Cathy thought. She had read about Empaths in a book; more than just empathetic, empaths could feel other people’s happiness or sadness, or in this case anxiety, themselves. In an ordinary situation she might have taken this opportunity to explain the term to Kat and the rest of the queens fully, but she felt so badly about being the cause of Kat’s current discomfort that she couldn’t speak, or even think rationally.

Instead she got up and left the house.

She ran to the nearest park to give her heart a reason to race and put distance between herself and the Queens at home. She didn’t want them to come after her, she didn’t want to try and explain something she didn’t know how to explain, and she certainly didn’t want it affecting them more than it had already. Eventually she found a bench, sat with her head resting heavily in both of her hands, and tried to reground herself.

“Cathy.” A voice startled her out of her own head. Cathy looked up to see Aragon walking toward her.

“Aragon? Aren’t you meant to be having brunch with Maria?” Cathy asked confused.

“I was, it’s done. I came home and the only one home was Kat, everyone else is out searching for you, love. What are you doing out here in the park alone?” Aragon said.

Cathy flinched inwardly. She hadn’t thought what her leaving would do to the other queen’s nerves, and she hadn’t brought her phone. If Aragon was done brunch she’d been out of the house for at least 40 minutes. 

“How did you know where to find me?” Cathy asked softly.

Aragon gave her a small grin. “I know this is where you walk when you want to gather your thoughts. Kat said you hadn’t been yourself when you left, so I figured you went somewhere familiar. Cleves was checking the library so I came here.”

They sat in silence for a few moments. Cathy marveled at how Aragon knew this park was her thinking place.

“So you want to talk about it?” Aragon spoke again.

“Talk about what?” Cathy said, not bothering with an overly bright tone. It was obvious something was wrong.

“We both know this isn’t the first time you’ve been out of sorts like this. You try to hide it, but we know you. We notice. Is there something particular that sets you off? Something we can help change?” Aragon’s eyebrows were furrowed with concern. Cathy was caught between despair over her (apparently failed) attempts to hide her emotion and a rush of affection for this unusually soft side of Aragon.

“It’s more or less random I think. I’m not totally sure. It usually hits with no warning, but it usually fades out rather quickly. Probably I should see a therapist, I mean, probably we all should, but what do you say? ‘Oh, I feel dread even though my life is pretty wonderful. How long have you felt this way you ask? Probably since the first time I was alive, but I always had a reason to feel anxious then.’” Cathy said wryly.

Aragon laughed. “I definitely agree with you. Say, you’re off tonight right?” She said suddenly.

Cathy nodded. Aragon smiled and continued “I am too. What say I text the others that I’ve found you, and we do a little shopping? I’ve got a wild idea, like Boleyn wild, but I think it’s brilliant and I think we’ll all benefit.”

Cathy laughed at the devilish look in her eye, it really was Anne-ish, even if Aragon’s look was more determined than Anne’s usually playful take on it. “Okay. Not illegal right?” She said.

Aragon gave her a sharp look. “You’ve been spending too much time with Anne.”

The rest of the day had passed, the show had come and gone, and Jane unlocked the door and whipped it open. Aragon and Cathy had not come home before she and the others had to leave for the theater and she had been worried all afternoon, despite Aragon’s constant assurance that both she and Cathy were alright.

“Cathy, I-“ Jane’s words and Jane herself stopped short when she rounded the corner into the queen’s living room. Cathy was there curled up on the couch, and asleep on her lap was a blonde puppy. Aragon was leaning against the wall next to the couch, smirking at the look on Jane’s face.

“I, is that, what on earth-“ Jane began, but was interrupted.

“A PUPPY!” Shouted Kat, who had just entered the room. She bounded over to the couch and plopped down next to Cathy. She began to stroke the puppy, which had begun to stir at the sound of Kat’s squeal.

“Is this our dog?” Jane asked weakly as Anne and Cleves joined the commotion. Aragon nodded. “Yup. Ours. Don’t worry Jane, we went shopping before we got her, and the shelter says she’s house trained.”

“Wait seriously, you and Cathy went out and impulse bought a puppy?” Anne said. “I’m sort of impressed.”

“Why exactly?” Cleves said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, I had some and I miss them dearly so I’m thrilled, but why now?” Cleves was glancing at Cathy knowingly, but Aragon spoke up for both of them.

“We both figured that we were given a second chance at life, so why not give an animal a second chance? Apparently this puppy was a runt and the breeder couldn’t sell her so he brought her to the shelter. But she was so sweet and she cuddled up to Cathy right away, and we both thought this puppy needs us, but maybe we all also need her.”

Cathy smiled gratefully up at Aragon, and Aragon gave her a wink.

“Does she have a name?” Kat asked.

“I’ve been thinking we should call her Rosie.” Cathy said, looking around at all the queens. “Like my line in Ex-Wives, about the Tudor Rose and it’s thorns.”

“So we’re the thorns then?” Asked Anne.

Even Jane chuckled. Sure she hadn’t liked being blind-sighted with a puppy, of all things, but she had to agree with Aragon. Sometimes the queen’s baggage required a little something extra to handle, and hopefully this puppy would help provide that extra comfort, or laugh, or run to burn energy, that they needed.

And one look at Cathy, who seemed so much more peaceful and content with Rosie snuggled against her, melted the rest of her doubts.

Cathy smiled as she stroked the puppy’s ears. She was certain Aragon was right; and it was hard to be unhappy with a ball of fluff in your lap.

And then Anne said “Is this a good time to mention I’ve been hiding three cats in my loft?”

Cathy wasn’t sure which was louder- Jane’s admonishing or Anne’s yelling “I’m joking!! JOKING!!”

Kat sighed. “Get ready Rosie, you’re in for a wild life with us.” She said to the dog. 

Cathy chuckled. A wild life indeed.


End file.
